Toyota Echo Care and Maintenance

Comments

I thought cat was bad when you smelled hydrogen sulfide. True or false?

Also, Maintenance Manual says change "non-platinum" plugs every 30K, yet the Owners Manual says (p.129)"Your engine is fitted with iridium-tipped spark plugs." Aren't these good for life of car?

Finally, the repair manual was $230+ when I checked at the dealer's parts dept shortly after I bought the car for $11,800 (total) in Jan '00.

BTW, my gas mileage is phenominal--averaging 43 with a low of 33 in bitter cold (short trips in city) and a high of 50.3 on 400-mile trips! I shift early without lugging engine, coast to red lights and stop signs, seldom "step on it," and fill tires when cold to 31 or 32 pounds. 88K and only front brakes, and stabilizer bar replaced.

Toyota shop wanted to change dirty filter (showed to me) but too much $$.I bought home AC filter at Quality Hardware for less than $2 and followed rickolano's instructions. There's enough for another change (but not 87,000 more miles).

Scratch plugs. NGK tech said the Echo iridium plugs are good for as much as 100K, so disregard manual's "change "non-platinum plugs" every 30k. But see Owner's Manual to confirm iridiums in your car--see "spark plugs" in index.

But what about catalytic converter? Does it always stink when bad?

Again, thanks for advice on cabin air filter and AC pipe/hose insulation. Golly gee, Willikers! I'll be breathing cleaner air and getting over 50mpg with AC on.

I've just purchased a 1995-2005 Echo service manual on a CD in pdf format that covers just about everything. I got this from a seller in Australia for 7 dollars on e-Bay. The CD has the Toyota logo and is copywrited by Toyota Japan so it's either an original or an excellent pirate copy. It covers all the mechanical and electrical components of the car and includes component drawings and might be something Toyota supplies to Dealers service departments. Manuals certainly exist and don't cost a fortune. It's just a matter of searching for them.

I am looking for a service manual CD for my 2003 Echo, and I've also found the CD on eBay offered by a seller in Australia. But I need your help to get more information about this CD before I buy it on eBay. Here are my questions: Does it cover (1) OBDII codes and electronical wiring? (2) all sensors locations? (3) how many pages in total in that CD? (4) Who is the CD publisher of this manual?

Does it a universal manual only for Echo or Yaris (no specific year or model)?

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this- but I just had a question. I have a 2001 four door Toyota Echo (which I love!). I had it in for service to get the oil changed etc. The dealership marked that the Accessory Drive Belt(s) require immediate attention.

Can anyone tell me what these are?

I apologize if this has already been covered (I searched butcould not find anything on this) and hopefully this is not too stupid of a question!

These are the rubber belts on the front of the engine (which faces the passenger side under the hood). I can't remember offhand, but I suspect that the Echo just has a single belt that runs everything, which includes your alternator (without which your battery gradually goes flat) and power steering and A/C. Generally, the miles or the chemicals in the air eat your belts up about every four years. If yours is cracked or glazed, it may not be doing its job properly any more, and if it breaks you will not be able to drive much further before the battery goes dead, especially at night. For the $99 (hopefully less, that is a California price!)the service station will charge you, it is worth it to replace it once it is worn.

I will have to go look under the hood later and see how many drive belts mine has. I get it confused with my truck. :-/

2 belts. Takes about 60-90 minutes to change them. Toyota recommends every 60k. I've changed mine 3 times already. I let it go to 70k the first time, and the main belt had small cracks in it - which means it was really time to change it.

i've looked everywere for the service manual can't find one no where ... if its not to much trouble can you or maybe someone else send me a copy of the manuel or cd over the internet? ill apreciate your help

I'd be more than happy to burn you a copy of the CD if you will provide a mailing address. Unfortunately I have a dial up connection and my server would time out trying to send something this large on the net. These CDs are supposed to be available at dealerships but I haven't found one that has it. The one I have I bought from a contact in Australia.

Not a good idea to post a mailing address on a public webpage. One or both of you could/should make your email address public so you could contact each other offline with that kind of contact info. You can always go back and make it private again after you get where you want to be.

Need your expertise. I have also changed both belts on my son's 2001 Echo, but I must not have tightened the power steering pump belt tight enough, as it is squealing. I had to take off the right tire, and still not have much room. I had trouble finding a pry point. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I'm in a similar position with my Toyota Echo, would readily pay for a book or a CD or something, which gives me firm guidelines on how parts are supposed to fit together. There is a website called http://www.alldata.com, AutoZone has a link to it. Has anyone used it, does it have any useful information? I was surprised how unintuitive the process of replacing a battery was compared to other (bigger) vehicles. Just looking for some schematics, showing all parts involved... Thanks!

Unless im reading it wrong, toyota's maintennce schedule does not include changing the transmission fluid with automatics ever unless its used under severe conditions. I do not use the car under severe conditions, so i havent changed the auto trans fluid yet i have 150k.Then talked to service guy at loacl dealer. He said I should be changing it every 40K . Who is right? the manufaturer recommendations or the service guy?rick

If you carefully read in your manual what severe conditions means, you will realize that almost everyone drives under severe conditions.

Considering the cost of draining and refilling the transmission compared to the total cost of keeping a car over 150k miles or more, IMHO a drain and fill every 2 years is cheap insurance, especially if you want to keep the car another 150k miles (should be no problem).

Severe conditions are using your Echo all the time in stop and go conditions, like using it as a taxi for instance, or using it most of the time on dirt roads, or using it to tow.

Much has been made over the years about the "severe conditions", so much so that from what I hear Toyota is eliminating any confusion by just stating each of these three conditions as a separate category now rather than letting the owner decide, and then listing the specific things that need more frequent attention in each category.

Many new models on the market since 2000, from all manufacturers, have lifetime auto trans fluid as long as you don't tow. This includes most Toyotas (maybe all, I should check that some time). Certainly includes the Matrix and the Celica, which I have owned new. And those models do NOT include heavy stop and go traffic as one of the severe conditions, only dirt roads and towing.

edit...I just looked, and this also applies to the Echo and the Sienna, I looked them up at toyota.com. If I were to check them all I bet I would find that Toyota does not recommend routine replacement of auto trans fluid on ANY of its models any more.Now if you tow, it's a different story - then the change interval is 60K miles.

I don't know if someone on this forum is still willing to provide a 2001 Echo owner such as myself a copy of the workshop manual via a CD, but I would certainly appreciate the opportunity to have this resource for upcoming self-perform maintenance. I can be accessed at archer@lexmark.com Thanks much.

I'm pretty sure the 2000 doesn't have the filter; I think 2001 and up have it... they always seem to change little things from year to year... Sort of like the 2000 having the Iridium plugs stock, and the 2001 and up came with either regular or platinum...